Tom Pohlad Promised to Spend in 2027. The Twins' 25th-Ranked Pitching Staff Is the Bill

The Minnesota Twins got eliminated from postseason contention and then spent the following week firing people. That's the honest summary of the last seven days in Minneapolis.

Pitching coach Pete Maki and assistant pitching coach Luis Ramirez will not return, the club announced, along with assistant athletic trainer Jason Kirkman. Maki had been with the organization since 2018 and had run the pitching staff since 2022, surviving the transition from Rocco Baldelli to Derek Shelton. Yahoo Sports noted the two coaches were retained from Baldelli's staff when Shelton took over for 2026 — which makes their dismissal read less like a new manager's housecleaning and more like a delayed response to a season-long failure. Shortly after, word surfaced that assistant GM Daniel Adler, in the organization since 2017, was also parting ways.

The numbers explain the purge

Minnesota finished 77-85, with a run differential of minus-58 — 739 runs scored against 797 allowed. The team ERA landed at 4.54, which ranked 25th in baseball, ahead of only Washington, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Oakland and Colorado. The bullpen was worse: a 4.81 ERA and a 1.446 WHIP across the season, which is how a club that was still mathematically alive into late September kept finding ways to lose winnable games.

Look at the September game log and the pattern is almost comic in its consistency. Blowouts both directions — a 15-2 win over Detroit on Sept. 1, then 11-6 and 10-1 losses within five days. An eight-game stretch in mid-September in which the Twins allowed eight or more runs three times against Cleveland and the Yankees. The staff was the story, and ownership appears to have read it that way.

Buxton's rehab is the other shoe

While the coaching news broke, MLB.com reported that Byron Buxton is focused on an offseason rehab program with an eye toward a healthy 2027. FanSided's injury roundup added Walker Jenkins' surgery and Zebby Mathews' flexor strain to a list that already includes Pablo López, David Festa, Mick Abel, Cole Sands and Anthony Banda on the 60-day IL.

That's six pitchers from the injured list and a star center fielder recovering at once — which is the connective tissue between this week's firings and the more consequential storyline: Tom Pohlad's promise. According to MLB Trade Rumors, the Twins' controlling owner said the club will "meaningfully invest" in payroll and plans to contend in 2027. It's a notable statement from an ownership group that, one year earlier, watched baseball operations trade ten players off the big-league roster — Carlos Correa and Jhoan Duran among them — in a deadline teardown.

What the week actually means

The Twins are doing two things at once, and they aren't fully compatible. They're firing pitching coaches for a 25th-place ERA while pledging to add payroll to a roster that just finished third in a weak AL Central. One of those is a short-term fix. The other requires actual dollars.

The encouraging counterweight is real, if small: Minnesota went 2-1 in its final homestand against Texas, including a 10-2 win on Sept. 25, and the Rangers were eliminated from playoff contention with a loss to the Twins. Luke Keaschall homered in the road-series clincher at San Francisco. The farm system earned its own end-of-year recognition. There are pieces.

But a payroll pledge only matters if it buys pitching, and the coaching turnover only matters if it fixes what the coaches were watching. The Twins enter the winter with a rebuilt front office, a new pitching department to hire, a star they hope to get back healthy, and an owner on record saying the money is coming. Ownership has now said the quiet part out loud. The offseason will determine whether it was a plan or a press release.